WHAT do you do if you’re a relatively young brand in the automotive world and you don’t have much legacy? In Infiniti’s case, you just make it up.

The luxury arm of Japanese car maker Nissan has just unveiled what it calls the Prototype 9, an alien, open-wheeled electric “retro roadster prototype” crafted by Nissan workers as an after-hours labour of love.

“We discussed the idea of ‘chancing’ upon an unrecognised race car, hidden away for decades in a barn, deep in the Japanese countryside,” global design senior vice-president Alfonso Albasia said.

“We wanted to explore what this looked like, what it would have been made of. Open-wheeled racers of the age were beautiful machines, elegant and powerful and with a wonderful purity of purpose.

“It’s an automotive fantasy, but the notion captured our imaginations enough to put pencil to paper,” he said.

Powering the Prototype 9 is a new-generation 120kW/320Nm electric motor borrowed from Nissan’s Advanced Powertrain Unit, its output well down on the 390kW of a late 1930s-era Auto Union Type C streamliner. Up front the modern-day retro racer uses an inverted leaf spring suspension, while down the rear it uses an era-appropriate de Dion suspension.

Unlike cars of the era that used lightweight materials, the Prototype 9 is built around a ladder frame and panels that use steel, tipping the scales at around 800kg.

Finishing it all off is that wide Infiniti grille. It’s best to end things here.

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